Browser wars: after Internet Explorer 9, it’s time for Firefox 4

Internet Explorer 9 was launched by Microsoft a week back, and Firefox 4 was launched on 22nd March.

Internet Explorer 9 created a record of sorts for Microsoft by getting downloaded 2.4 million times on the first day of release. Firefox 4 has been downloaded 3 times more in 24 hrs since its release. According to Mozilla’s site, Firefox has been downloaded over 7 million times! However, Mozilla failed to beat its own record of 8 million downloads in first day set ta the release of Firefox 3 in 2008.

Firefox 4 was scheduled for a Nov 2010 release, but bugs ensured that the release was delayed to March. While Firefox 4 can run on Windows XP, Internet Explorer 9 can’t, so this can explain more downloads for Firefox 4 as still almost 50% of Microsoft users are on Windows XP.

Both browsers are aiming to provide a cleaner interface by removing the menu buttons and giving more viewing area. Both browsers claim to be faster than ever before. On usage, internet explorer 9 really feels smooth and is not at all buggy like previous explorer releases. But mozilla has been my preferred browser for quite sometime, though 3.4 version onwards, Firefox was becoming very laggy. Let’s see how version 4 does.